Iwata "Very Sorry" About Wii U Day One Patch

Nintendo head honcho Satoru Iwata has apologised for Wii U owners having to download a patch to access core features like backwards compatibility, online multiplayer, MiiVerse and the digital marketplace.

“Personally I think that users should be able to use all the functions of a console video game machine as soon as they open the box,” Iwata told IGN, responding to numerous complaints about the length of time spent downloading and setting up the 1GB patch (not to mention the 5GB of personal storage it eventually takes up).

“So I feel very sorry for the fact that purchasers of Wii U have to experience a network update which takes such a long time, and that there are the services which were not available at the hardware’s launch.”

However, he also predictably suggests that the Wii U network offers a truly unique experience and is well worth the initial inconvenience.

“It is challenging to communicate attractions which are hard to understand unless you actually touch and experience them yourself," he posited. "This is especially so with Wii U because it has unprecedented entertainment potential. We have not thought that offering the same features that already exist within other online communities would be the best proposal for very experienced game players."

“Nintendo has paid a great deal of attention to the dynamic of people playing video games together in the same room. With Wii U, we thought about expanding this concept into separate rooms which are connected online. Miiverse is a network community dedicated to video games that represents a very unique game-dedicated social graph that has never existed before.”

We'll find out just how much the day one patch affects the Wii U experience in... oh. Tomorrow. Here it comes.